


Room 7

by Pretty_Odd



Series: Mafia Stories [2]
Category: Not a fan fic, Original Work
Genre: Anorexia, Backstory, F/M, Insanity, Lead up to insanity, Mental Hospital, Psychosis, Woo!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-02-11 17:38:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12940338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pretty_Odd/pseuds/Pretty_Odd
Summary: The story of Anthony Lawton before Thorn.





	1. Normal

I honestly don’t know why I’m here, I’m normal. My eyes, wide and wild, flick around the room as I’m dragged by the collar. It’s bare and empty, somewhere beyond the walls I can hear someone screaming. The lady behind the counter smiles warmly at me, but the look is more like she’s looking at a lost puppy rather than another human. I try to struggle out of the grasp, even resorting to biting the hand holding me in place. But it has no effect, I go limp in the grip, giving up on fighting back. Instead I listen in on the conversation, in the blurs of my mind I pick up a few words, _hallucinations, homicidal tendencies, schizophrenic._ The lady is smiling at me still. I’m normal.

“We can fix him.”

I’m normal. I don’t need fixing.

“Come here darling,” the lady coos at me. I take a hesitant step towards her, then I’m being shoved, I land on the ground, shouting in pain from the impact. The lady does nothing to help, only keeping up her smiling demeanour which is now starting to scare me. The man who brought me here leaves, I don’t even know his name. Where’s mum? Where’s dad? Where am I? The smiling lady hooks an arm under my armpit and pulls me to my feet. She gestures for me to follow her. The corridors are long, winding, through windows I see people of different age groups, adults, elderly and most haunting of all small children who couldn’t top eleven at oldest.

I watch one of the kids pull and arm off a teddy bear and start ripping its stuffing out. Another child is sitting in a corner; he stares blankly at a wall, there’s deep purple bags under his eyes, he twitches every so often. My mind can’t comprehend just how these children ended up here.

The smiling lady appears at my side again, she’s struggling to keep up with the façade though, I can see her starting to get annoyed with me. Good. Maybe she’d get sick of me and let me go because _I’m normal._ We go through another few corridors, the lights flicker adding to the gloomy effect.

She takes out some keys and unlocks a door to a larger area. There’s a bunch of people around my age here, all of them stop what they’re doing to stare at me. I notice all of them are wearing the same clothes, plain white shirt and pants. One girl shoots me hostile looks and snarls but her two friends next to her point at me and giggle. I tear my eyes away from them to look at others, my eyes lock with a boy sitting close to where I’m standing.

He’s scarily thin, no muscle at all. His black hair is all tangled up and twisted, his eyes are a disgusting green colour. He lifts up a bony finger and points at me.

“Welcome crazy!” his voice is surprisingly strong given his health. No one else says anything, all eyes are locked on the smiling lady. I feel her shift beside me, as if their gazes are like knives cutting her open. She pulls out a note pad that I didn’t notice before and holds it close to her, she’s shaking slightly. The lady flips through a few pages before landing on one.

“This is Anthony Lawton, he will be staying in…” I can see the colour drain from her face, “…room 7.” As soon as I turn away she sprints out of the room, her ankles shaking from walking awkwardly on expensive high heels so out of place in this grimy hospital. Everyone looks at me expectantly. The thin boy gets up and sticks a bony hand out for me to shake.

I grab his hand and he gives me a crooked smile, “name’s Benny Torrin, and who might you be?” His hand feels so frail in mine, with just a little bit of force I could easily snap it, wouldn’t be that much harder to break than a twig I reckon. I stop my thoughts, I can’t think like this, because I’m _normal._

“None of us are normal mate,” Benny says, I bite my lip knowing I just spoke out loud. How much did I say? I shake my head and look him in the eyes.

“Anthony Lawton,” and I shake his hand. People start turning away now, but a few of them watch on. I hear the two girls whisper to each other about me, saying stuff like _“how do you think a cutie like him ended up in here?”_ or _“how long til he breaks,”_ each sentence is followed by giggles. I drown out their laughter.

“Don’t mind em, the blonde one’s Emily and the other’s Jessy. That black haired girl there is Violet, she hates everyone,” Benny explains to me even though I’m not really listening. I’m looking at all the people in the room, I’m surprised many of them seem somewhat normal.

“What’s wrong with him?” I motion to a large African-American boy sitting in the corner. Benny shakes his head as if to say, _“don’t ask about anyone’s conditions.”_ From that point I keep my mouth shut and allow Benny to tour me around the place. There’s an art room, but by the looks of it no one has used it in years, there’s something about it that Benny’s not telling me and my curiosity starts burning up. Adding to the millions of questions about this place I already have.

He takes me down a hallway, pointing to all the rooms where we all sleep. I spot room 7, but to my surprise Benny moves past it, not giving it a second glance. More questions, great. I decide to keep my mouth shut though, he leads me to a door which is only staying up by a few hinges.

“It’s meant to be unlocked at certain times but the people running this place don’t care anymore,” Benny says but I’m not listening. I step out into the courtyard and to my disappointment it’s just as bad as inside. The concrete’s cracked and there’s a few plants growing out of it, there’s a basketball court but the hoop has long since disappeared. The thing that really catches my eye though is the great big oak in the centre of the clearing. I also notice the entire thing is surrounded by twenty feet tall barbed wire fences.

The question becomes out of my mouth before I can stop it, “has anyone tried escaping before?”

Benny’s eyes go wide then he slams a hand over my mouth, “you can’t say that! They might hear you!”

He’s looking around like a rabbit surrounded by wolves, I don’t understand. There’s no one out here with us, but he seems tense so I figure I should be more cautious with my words. He starts heading back inside so I follow him. We’re heading back down the hallway when he stops and leans against the door to room 7. Benny cranes his head left and right, when he sees the coast is clear he whispers to me.

“Be careful… you’re roommate is Ember, no one knows what’s wrong with her, she’s not physically dangerous from what I know but… she has a way of getting under peoples skins, she… she just knows everything. You’re the most sane here, I figured you should know.” Then Benny runs, or rather limps off, leaving me standing outside room 7.

“Can’t be too bad I mutter to myself,” as I push the door open.


	2. Expectations

I don’t know what I was expecting, someone as scary looking as Benny? In my head I pictured a girl with sunken eyes, a bony structure and manic grin. I imagined her sharpening a knife in the corner, surrounded by writings in blood on the wall. But she meets none of my expectations. Ember’s hair is a deep caramel brown colour her eye’s match in colour. She’s reading a book, not bothering to look up and meet my gaze to which I’m thankful for. There’s two beds in the room so I walk over to the unoccupied one.

“Hello Lawton.”

I jump and she smirks. Her eyes meet mine for a second before I look away, the burning feeling of embarrassment spreading through me. I open my mouth to speak, my voice comes out stronger than I intended, “how’d you know my name?”

She laughs, but it’s fake and laced with sarcasm, “I _just know everything._ ” I avoid her gaze, and go to lie down in the dirty rough bedsheets. I hate this place already. I’m hoping when I fall asleep I’d wake back up at home. Home… The voice in my head starts to speak to me again, just like every night.

“Go away,” I mumble to it.

I hear Ember gasp, “well that’s just rude.” She strolls over and leans over my body, I want to push her away but I don’t. My eyes are open again and her face is right in front of mine. “What’s wrong with you?” she asks, “wait no don’t tell me.” She moves back and kneels at the end of my bed, I sit up, groaning in pain slightly from being shoved to the ground earlier. I’m aware of how compromising this must look if someone walked in but I shove the thought from my mind. Ember speaks again, “you believe you’re not insane, you keep telling yourself you’re normal even though deep down you know you’re not. You’re afraid, afraid of yourself, afraid of what you can do to others, that’s why you try to keep everything in. You did something, something bad. And I’m gonna find out.”

She jumps up from my bed, her hair swishing around before disappearing in a blur of brown. I watch her settle into bed and vanish under the rough covers. I’m in shock by how accurate her guess was. I lie down in bed and stare at the grotty ceiling. I don’t know how but I somehow fall asleep listening to the screams of the tortured.

 

* * *

 

 

When morning comes I’m surprised to find the room door locked. It’s quiet outside, I kick the door. It’s not letting me go anywhere, I sigh and flop down on the floor.

“Interesting tactic,” comes Ember’s voice. She’s reading that book again, I crane my neck to look at the title. _Will To Live_ , something many people in this place lack. I stroll over to her, curiosity gets the best of me.

“Why does everyone seem scared of-” she punches me in the face before I can finish my sentence. At that moment someone unlocks our door and she gets up, but not before stopping in the doorway and saying, “I can be _physically_ dangerous when I want to be, don’t ask questions Lawton.” Every word dripping with threat and ferocity. Then she leaves, I get up to chase after her. Say I’m sorry. But she’s gone, I can’t find her anywhere even though this place isn’t that big.

I run into the common room, not looking where I’m going. I run into someone and hear the sickening crack of bones breaking. Fuck. I look down and see Benny with his wrist twisted in an awkward angle. He’s grinning for some reason, I don’t understand why. Then he’s laughing, “hey it’s as broken as the people in here!” He’s giggling so hard he starts coughing, some other patients come out to see what all the commotion is. One of the girls, Jessy, strolls over to me.

“This one’s a bad boy!” she giggles, her friend Emily joining in. I roll my eyes and look at Benny whose still on the ground and clearly in a lot of pain. The door to the outside world, to freedom, swings open and the Smiling Lady appears with some doctor. By now a large crowd gathers, the doctor helps Benny to his feet and half carries/half walks him out. The Smiling Lady disappears with them then all eyes are on me.

“It was an accident,” but the sentence sounds more like a question than a statement. Most people nod and leave to their business, others stay in the common room to stare at the blank walls. A small boy walks up to me, “d-d-did y-you talk t-t-o…” he looks around the room, checking to see if people are listening, once he’s satisfied no one is he finishes, “Ember?” His voice is so quiet it’s barely audible. I don’t get why Ember is such a scary figure around this joint, I only nod in reply. His eyes widen as if he’s looking at some sort of hero which is ironic since I just broke Benny’s wrist.

“I-I’m Ch-Charlie,” he whispers.

“Lawton,” I say even though he probably already knows it. I look at him and wonder what possible reason is there for Charlie to stay in a mental hospital.

As if reading my mind he answers, “I-I have a-anxiety issues if you couldn’t t-tell, I keep t-telling Dr M-Martin it’s f-fine, but he’s b-bent on thinking s-something’s wrong w-with me.” I nod, taking in the information. I assume it was Dr Martin who took Benny away. I start walking away from Charlie, but he sprints after me.

“Where a-are you g-going?” he asks.

“I’m going to find Ember,” I reply in a surprisingly calm manner. He grabs my arm and shakes his head so fast I think it’s going to fall off.

“B-bad idea, v-v-very bad idea,” he says quickly. I yank my arm out of his grip, why is everyone so terrified of this girl? I’m going to find out one way or another.


	3. Inquisitive

While others may lose a sock or their keys, I managed lose an entire person. I’m heading back down the hall towards room 7 when I find myself standing outside the art room. I’m surprised to find it unlocked, tentatively I step inside. Most things are covered in a fine layer of dust, cobwebs cover almost every inch of the room, there’s a clear path going through it though, someone uses this room regularly. I look around the room again, well, at least part of this room. I follow the path which stands out because it’s not covered in the grime.  

“Looking for someone?” her hand is on my shoulder, “I knew you’d find me here because, Mr Lawton, you are inquisitive, you’re always searching for answers and won’t stop til you have them. Oh Lawton, how hypocritical you are, trying to get answers from me when you won’t let me get any from you.” She puts a hand over her forehead and one over her heart to dramatize her words. Then she smirks at me, knowing she’s got it dead right again.

For a while we both sit in silence, she never takes her eyes off me, I squirm awkwardly under her dark gaze. I really do want to know about her though, why everyone is so scared, why she’s even here, hell, I even want to know about her family. If she has any. So I speak up.

“You can ask questions, only if I can ask you some.”

Ember thinks for a moment before giving a nod so small I’m surprised I even noticed it at all. She leans back on a bench where there’s long since dried paint dripping down the sides. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she raises an eyebrow, waiting for my question.

“How do you know these things about me?”

Then she laughs, it’s not fake like the rest of them, it’s a real laugh. I shift awkwardly which I seem to be doing a lot of. Her brown eyes settle on me, her gaze is piercing through my skin. 

“Well, you see it’s not hard reading people, and plus I don’t even know if what I’m saying is true. But people believe it’s true, even when it’s not. Believing can be a dangerous thing you know,” she says clearly. I don’t know why but something about that is unsettling, its making the hairs on my arm stick up. Then she clears her throat, “now my question, why are you here Lawton?"

I blink, and my mind fogs over. Why am I here? I am normal. 

"No you're not. For starters you're saying your thoughts out loud."

I roll my eyes, and reply, "I... did something." Ember raises an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation that never comes. A knocking on the door makes me jump but she sits still. Her brown gaze locked onto the door, as if someone knows its her they instantly leave us alone. Their shuffling echoes through the hall as they scramble away. When I turn around to face Ember she's gone, and the door is wide open. God she's confusing.


End file.
